In her two years as SAG-AFTRA president, has labored assiduously to bridge the factional divides which have lengthy beset the union.
“Member unity might be my biggest legacy,” she promised in her marketing campaign assertion this summer time, and she or he sought reelection. (She was reelected with greater than 80% of the vote.)
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However because the SAG-AFTRA strike nears the 100-day mark, Drescher is going through her most difficult management check thus far: Can she maintain the union collectively lengthy sufficient to ship the “seminal” deal she has promised members?
A bunch of A-list actors, led by George Clooney, met along with her and the union’s prime negotiator on Tuesday. Although the A-listers have been eager to be supportive, the underlying message was that they’re desperate to get Hollywood again to work and aren’t assured that the guild is on a path to doing that.
The group, which additionally included Ben Affleck, Meryl Streep and Scarlett Johansson, offered a proposal to extend dues on high-earning actors and reconfigure residuals so that they profit the low finish of the revenue scale.
When the A-listers have been gently rebuffed, they may have stayed quiet. As an alternative, Clooney went public along with his concept — an obvious problem to Drescher and the SAG-AFTRA Negotiating Committee, and a possible signal that the union’s solidarity is starting to fray.
Drescher recorded an Instagram video on Thursday, during which she defined that Clooney’s dues concept would not work, is barred by federal legislation, and doesn’t pertain to the problems within the negotiation.
Of his residual proposal, she stated: “Sadly it doesn’t maintain water.”
Drescher then tried to show the main target again to the Alliance of Movement Image and Tv Producers — which represents the studios — and her personal concept for a brand new type of streaming residual, which she envisions as a game-changer for actors.
“We’ve cracked the code on one thing. We’ve recognized what the flaw is on this streaming mannequin,” she stated, saying that the CEOs must settle for an “unprecedented compensation construction.” “It is probably not simple. It is probably not what they need. However it’s a chic approach to resolve the issue so we are able to all return to work in what would change into the brand new regular.”
SAG-AFTRA adopted that up with a written memo to members on Thursday night time, once more thanking the Clooney group for its “concepts and help,” however explaining why these concepts received’t work.
The memo additionally indicated that the A-listers are speaking with the heads of studios — suggesting they might be attempting to work across the negotiating committee.
“The truth that the heads of the networks, streaming firms and studios are open to speaking with them straight is nice,” the union stated. “However, the executives mustn’t for one second assume that they’ll use the great will of member emissaries to distract us from our mission.”
The union additionally despatched a transparent message to actors how they’ll greatest be useful: “So, for now, we encourage all members to champion our full proposal package deal and get out on the picket line.”
Duncan Crabtree-Eire, SAG-AFTRA’s chief negotiator, stated in an interview on Thursday that the Clooney group’s efforts shouldn’t be seen as undermining union solidarity.
“Totally different folks could understand it in another way,” he stated. “However from my standpoint, the conversations I’ve had with the members throughout the complete spectrum of our membership have all been, ‘What can we do to assist additional this?’ And if they’ve nice concepts, I need to hear them for positive.”
The CEOs are additionally desperate to get again to work, however have concluded that as long as the union is demanding half a billion {dollars} in streaming residuals per yr — on prime of the streaming residuals actors already get and the share will increase received by the Administrators Guild of America and the Writers Guild of America — the talks aren’t going anyplace.
In personal, they’ve grumbled that Drescher seems to be on a campaign to redistribute wealth, moderately than get a workable deal.
Drescher, in the meantime, is working to carry the membership collectively and persuade them to remain the course.
“This too shall move,” she stated Thursday. “However that is the second the place we don’t succumb to strain. That is the second the place we stand tall and we maintain agency.”
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